


Making A Home

by TheDoctorIsIcecube



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Established Relationship, Multi, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-24
Updated: 2016-10-25
Packaged: 2018-08-24 11:07:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8369902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDoctorIsIcecube/pseuds/TheDoctorIsIcecube
Summary: Niles put up an advert for a flat share and he was not expecting Leo to show up. Nothing about him seems normal, but he's not willing to share at all. When disaster hits Leo's boyfriend, two becomes three, and Niles has to deal with more than his usual quota of attractive men.





	1. Negotiations

Niles wasn't expecting anyone to actually respond to the ad he'd put online. He certainly wasn't expecting someone attractive to show up, and attractive was definitely the word used to describe Leo. The man currently standing on his doorstep looked more like a god than a human, in a rather cute and nerdy way.

"Good morning," he said, and of course he would say good morning when dragging Niles out of bed at nine o'clock on a day he didn't have a morning work shift. "My name is Leo, I saw your advert online for a flat share." From his accent, he didn't need a flat share. He looked like he breathed out money instead of carbon dioxide.

Niles bit back a comment about wanting to share a hell of a lot more than a flat with Leo, and instead smiled and tried not to look intimidating. "Hello, Leo. In case you didn't see on the ad, I'm Niles. And I promise I'm not a murderous psychopath, no matter what the eyepatch makes you think. I haven't killed anyone in...hmm, five years?" He shot a grin at Leo, just to make it absolutely clear that he was in fact joking.

"Really? It's only been six months for me." Leo said this with a straight face, but Niles was fairly confident he was joking. Fairly. Leo had a sarcastic sort of face, so he wasn't too worried.

"So, you want to flat share with me?" He asked. Leo nodded. "Why?"

"I'll be moving out for the first time," he said, and Niles made a mental note not to flirt with the guy who was probably literally eighteen. That was a bit young for him, he'd have to wait until the boy was at least a proper adult.

"Moving out for the first time in order to share with a complete stranger? You're a brave little thing, aren't you?" Niles stepped back into his flat, really hoping that Leo liked the look of it so that he'd have someone to split the rent with again. "Come in, won't you? Do you want anything to drink?"

"Vodka," Leo said, and then he laughed. "I don't drink, don't worry. Just a glass of water, please."

"I drink a bit, so I hope that isn't a problem," he said. He wasn't sure he believed any teenager who said they didn't drink.

"I've been through university. If it was a problem, I wouldn't have a double first." His voice was full of pride, and Niles wanted to hate him. How old was this kid? Was he lying to run away from home or something, a prissy rich kid rebelling against authority?

"Not to be rude," he said carefully, letting the statement hang until he'd poured Leo a glass of water and brought it back to him. "But just how old are you? If you've been through university, that would make you older than me, and you don't look it..."

"I'm nineteen," Leo said. "But I have hyperlexia, so I skipped two years of school when I was six and never went back." Niles didn't really want to know what hyperlexia was and didn't want to know why a genius wanted to share a shitty flat with him.

"Right." He was beginning to wonder if it would have been a good idea to get himself an alcoholic drink while he was still standing up. At least Leo was only a year younger than him, though. That was definitely within the acceptable flirting zone. "So...do you want me to show you around the place? You'll get Odin's room, he moved out to go and stay with his boyfriend or something."

"Please," he said after a moment. "I won't be able to move in for another month, by the way, but I'm happy to pay half of this month's rent if you need it." Definitely a rich kid. Probably had loads of job prospects in the future. He was nineteen and more qualified than half the goddamn adults in the country. It wasn't fair.

"You sound like you have a lot of money," Niles pointed out. "So what's stopping you from just going off and buying your own place to live? Why so desperate to share with someone like me, hmm?"

Leo laughed. "My older brother won't let me live on my own, because of family reasons." It sounded silly, but Niles supposed it wasn't his place to judge. Even if this guy was being pushed around by his older brother. "He's also my boss, so I have to listen to him."

"Right...what about your parents, huh? Aren't they around to help?" Leo's expression went cold suddenly- his jaw clenched, and he shook his head mutely. Niles nodded, and then wisely decided to change the subject. "So this will be your room...I hope it looks alright."

Leo nodded. "I have furniture that I'm going to move in from home, so this is great, it's really open." That just meant it was super empty, and Niles knew that. Odin had cleared the whole thing with his boyfriend and it had taken them a week to get all of the junk out. Odin had a lot of junk. 

"Sure, move in whatever furniture you like, so long as it all fits in there." Niles nodded into the empty room. "So...are you certain about living here, or is there anything else you need to see?" He was so close to solving all of his financial problems- all he needed was for Leo to agree to move in.

"I'm pretty sure," he said. "I'll have to work out some details. How good is your wifi, will it be possible to do conference calls?"

Niles nodded. He never used much wifi himself, he always just used the office computers unless he was doing something important and boring like a tax return, but Odin did calls all the time between his boyfriend and working from home.

"Good. I need to stay in touch with my family- well, my siblings, at least." Leo smiled a little. "I have three of them, and it's better to talk to all of them at once, you know?" 

"That should be fine," Niles said. He supposed now all that remained was asking this almost a child person if there was anything weird about him that meant they wouldn't want to share, a reason he'd decided to go for a share somewhere cheap rather than expensive like he could clearly afford. 

"Thank you." Leo thought for a few moments more. "I don't see why I shouldn't be able to share with you, that sounds good. When is is convenient for me to start moving furniture in?"

Niles shrugged. "Whenever," he said. "Obviously the neighbours would prefer that you didn't bring heavy objects in at two in the morning, so just keep it to decent hours? If you're going to pay I can give you a key now."

"I can pay now," Leo said, smiling innocently and pulling out his wallet. Niles stared for a moment, wondering how the hell he'd gotten this lucky.

"Is there any reason you're going for a really cheap share?" He asked. He should probably know, just in case it was something shifty, like this was the area that this kid bought drugs or something.

"Yeah, I just wanted something quickly so that I could get out as soon as possible." Leo sighed. "You don't want to know, trust me." He'd gone all quiet again, like he had before, so Niles figured that it was better not to pry any more. If he caught the guy getting high or something, he could deal with that later. It probably wasn't fair to be so suspicious.

"Fair enough," Niles said. "As for the actual block, there are a couple rules set by the landlord. We're not allowed to paint the walls, have any pets or have more than six people in one flat at a time. I'm sure you can keep to that, they're pretty standard rules."

"Okay," Leo said, counting out the money of the monthly rent that Niles had put up on the ad. Why he had that kind of money in cash, Niles didn't know, and he had the feeling that Leo wouldn't want to be asked. 

He accepted the money when Leo handed it over, checking for any signs that it was fake money or had been somehow used in handling drugs. It didn't seem to be out of order in the slightest. Just £500, perfectly fine. "Thanks," he said, and Leo smiled.

"I'll start getting stuff moved in next week, so I'll probably see you then," he said, accepting the key from Niles and making his way to the door, putting his glass on the side as he went past the kitchen.

"Alright. I'll see you then...hey, we should exchange phone numbers as well." Leo paused at the door and pulled out his phone as Niles had asked, and they quickly swapped numbers. "Bye, then...I'll see you in a week." He smiled, lifting a hand to wave briefly to Leo as he headed out of the door. Gods, it was going to be hard not to flirt with someone like Leo. But he would probably have to try.


	2. Moving In

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leo starts moving his furniture into his room.

It was eight days later when Leo texted him and announced that he was going to start moving his belongings into the flat. Niles texted him back, saying it was fine to do so, and less than an hour later, two cars clearly loaded with things pulled up outside the apartment building. Niles wondered who was driving the second car- he supposed he'd find out soon enough, though.

Leo got out of the first car and a slightly shorter man got out of the other one. Niles couldn't help but notice that the cars looked to be very expensive, and he wondered why Leo wasn't moving in with this boy into an actually nice apartment. He watched from the window as Leo ran to the main door and rang the bell for Niles' (and technically his own) flat.

Niles rushed to answer it maybe a little faster than he should have done. "Hey," he said when he saw Leo. "Glad to see you haven't changed your mind about living here or anything. Who's your friend, huh?" From what little Niles had seen of him, he looked to be just as attractive as Leo.

Leo immediately flushed a bright red. "My, um, he's my boyfriend," he said, glancing over at the man who was starting to pull parts of a bedframe out of his expensive car. Two well off, attractive men in Niles' flat. Odin would be sad he moved out.

Niles just nodded, letting out a slight 'hmm' in response. Leo looked at him nervously, like he was expecting something. Niles wasn't quite sure what. 

"You- you're not, you don't mind that?" Leo chewed nervously at his bottom lip. "That doesn't bother you at all?"

"I'd be a hypocrite if it did," he said, and Leo looked relieved. Maybe that was what was stopping him moving somewhere with rich judgemental people. "Do you want any help getting stuff in?"

"No, I think Takumi and I will manage. If you could just show him where my room is, I'll go get some more stuff." Leo ran off to go back to his car just as Niles heard the footsteps of the man he'd called Takumi climbing up the many stairs of the apartment building.

"Morning," Niles said with a smile. "I'm Niles, I'll be living with your boyfriend." Takumi's face immediately twisted into a frown. A jealous type, then, though he didn't imagine that Leo was prone to sleeping around.

"Where's Leo's room? I hope it's far away from yours..." Takumi barged his way a little rudely into the flat, catching Niles in the hip with a piece of bedframe. Niles just smirked at him, leading the way into the flat and opening the door that led to Leo's room. 

"You'll be delighted to know that my room is right next door," Niles said smoothly. "I don't intend to try and sleep with your boyfriend, but if you do, I'd advise you to keep the noise down."

Takumi looked at him for a moment and let out a slight laugh. Niles raised an eyebrow, but Takumi didn't elaborate. "You can go do whatever, Leo and I don't need help," he said.

"Fine." Niles went to go sprawl on a nearby sofa, phone in hand, scrolling through webpages and keeping half an eye on Takumi piling stuff into Leo's room. He made sure to stretch out as much as possible, bordering on showing off, and he caught Takumi's eye and winked at him as he walked out of Leo's room to get more things from the car. 

Leo came in a moment later, holding several large bags full of books. "Takumi looks grumpy," he commented. "What did you say to him?"

Niles shrugged. "I don't know, I just got the impression that he's constantly grumpy. I think he's jealous of me." He knew exactly what he'd said that made Takumi grumpy. He'd even winked at him, which was going a little too far even in his books.

"Hmm. He gets grumpy easily." Leo dumped the books in his room, heading back out again a few moments later. "I'll make it up to him at some point. I don't think he's too keen on me living with you, he said you looked like some sort of pirate who was going to murder me."

"Why don't you go and live with him?" Niles asked, but he didn't get an answer, as Leo brushed straight past him and went back downstairs to get more stuff from his car.

The rest of the process of the pair moving all the items in was conducted in near silence, at least between Niles and them. He did hear them kissing on the stairs at one point as they passed each other, but he decided not to comment. He had better things to do than tormenting horny teenagers.

It took about an hour to move everything into Leo's room, and both Leo and Takumi looked completely exhausted by the time it was done. Niles had a feeling that he could have sped the process up considerably if he'd been allowed to help, but he hadn't been, so it was their fault and not his that they were so completely tired.

They took a break, sitting on the floor of Leo's room with their legs in an uncomfortable looking and slightly dubious position, tangled round each other. If they weren't rich and arrogant, Niles would find them adorable as a couple and very, very attractive on their own. "Do you want some coffee?" He asked. He could be nice sometimes, but apparently that was surprising to them. When he spoke, they both jumped and moved apart. "I've walked in on Odin doing far worse, kids, don't worry."

Takumi seemed to take great offence at being referred to as a kid, shooting another glare at Niles. Leo reached out and squeezed his hand, and said that yes, they would like some coffee. Niles left to go make some, hearing Leo and Takumi muttering between themselves as he left the room. Good. He liked it when people talked about him, it was funny because it meant he'd got to them. Takumi was clearly annoyed and that was very satisfying.

When he got back with two cups of coffee (he imagined Leo took coffee with lots of milk and sugar and Takumi took his about as black as his mood), they'd started organising the piles of stuff that was cluttering up the room. Predictably, they'd started assembling a bookshelf for the piles of possibly hundreds of books that littered the floor.

"Drinks are here," he announced. Leo paused in his bookshelf-building to take the mugs from Niles- to his surprise, he handed the sugary one to Takumi, taking the other one for himself. 

"Thank you," he said, and Takumi just gave a grudging mumble that was probably a thanks. "Would you help with putting the furniture together?" He asked. There was a light blush forming on his cheeks again. The poor little children didn't know how to put Ikea furniture together, apparently.

"Of course." Niles plucked the instruction leaflet from Takumi's hand, frowning at it for a moment. "Hmm...you've been trying to build these shelves upside down. Take it all apart and start again." Takumi looked furious, snatching the instructions back and glaring at them. Apparently realising Niles was right, he just grumbled under his breath and started dismantling the wonky shelves.

Leo sighed, and they started again. And then they had to start again after that because they realised they'd put the shelves too close together to actually put any books on them. When they were finally done, Niles looked at the bed with a feeling of dread. "We can come back and do the rest tomorrow?" Leo asked.

"I'll be at work, but sure," Niles said. "Don't trash the house while I'm gone."

"We won't," Leo promised. Niles didn't think Leo was capable of trashing anything, honestly, but it was nice to have his word. He always got a promise from Odin. They even had a contract.

"Oh, and I'm usually home at about half past five, just in case you were thinking of having some fun in this newly-constructed bed whilst I was out. Just to warn you." Leo and Takumi looked at each other and snorted in unison. Niles was missing something here.

They had another coffee, and then Takumi and Leo left Niles in the house with significantly less coffee and milk than before. Takumi took a lot of milk in his coffee.

Niles stayed sat on his sofa for a while after that, drinking his own mug of coffee (no milk, too much sugar to be healthy), and musing to himself about Leo and Takumi. They were certainly both attractive...it was a shame they were dating each other, really, because Niles would gladly have had either of them. Or both.

Oh well. He couldn't have everything, but he did have a flatmate who was clearly going to be able to pay all the rent each time payment day came, unlike Odin, whose income fluctuated frequently and occasionally necessitated Niles paying it for him. Which was difficult, because his own income was a little unstable as well. 

He finished his coffee and went to go to his room instead, because his bed was more comfortable than the sofa. It was still barely lunchtime, and he wasn't hungry anyway, so there wasn't much to do except sit around. He wondered if there would be more to do with Leo around, or if he'd be spending all of his time with his boyfriend. He supposed he would just have to wait and see.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, comments are greatly appreciated :) it's nice to know if things are going well and all feedback is appreciated.


End file.
